September 07, 2013

Wages of failure are bounteous

Executives from the taxpayer-funded consortium that runs the Sellafield nuclear site have received £6.6 million in bonuses over three years, despite most of the work being delayed and over budget.Furious MPs and unions accused Nuclear Management Partners — made up of Amec, the American company URS and Areva, of France — of wasting taxpayers’ money and of an “alarming” lack of transparency.Margaret Hodge, chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee, is planning to launch another investigation into the consortium next month after more concerns were raised.Her committee, as well the National Audit Office, has already lambasted the companies over their £1.6 billion annual contract. In June Sellafield Ltd, the site’s licence-holder, was fined £700,000 after “significant management and operational failings” allowed radioactive waste to be sent to a landfill site.The bonuses went to executive directors between 2009 and 2012, but an NMP spokeswoman refused to explain what the performance-related payments were for or how many executives had received them. She would not say even how many executive directors were employed by NMP, commenting: “As a private company, we will not be providing this information.”A different spokesman said later that 19 executive directors were on the payroll and apologised for the “confusion”.The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which owns Sellafield, referred The Times to Sellafield Ltd, which has contracted NMP. Sellafield Ltd referred The Timesto NMP.The consortium is already at risk of being stripped of the 17-year contract, awarded in 2008, because of the management failings, and a decision by the NDA could be made this month.MPs and unions lined up to criticise NMP. Alan Westnedge, the regional officer at Unite, said: “We are very shocked and surprised by the scale of the bonuses paid to senior executives. We have serious questions to ask NMP.”John Robertson, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Nuclear Energy, said: “It is disgraceful that managers are happily taking bonuses instead of investing the money into meeting the deadlines they have failed to meet. Greedy managers should be doing all they can to promote this important industry and show people how safe it actually is, not pocketing money so desperately needed in the industry.”Paul Flynn, the Labour MP for Newport West, said: “The consortium has gone from calamity to disaster. There is an alarming lack of transparency that almost certainly hides an unjustifiable expenditure on a project that suffers from endemic and continuing failure.”NMP said in a statement: “While we do not disclose information on the private financial arrangements between NMP and its employees, the bonus levels of executive directors seconded to Sellafield Ltd reflect the fee that NMP earns, based upon meeting performance targets agreed annually with the NDA. There is, therefore, a clear link between the payment of bonuses and performance.”